Preventing child obesity

Challenge: Prevent child obesity for children aged between -1 -6 years.
Challenge Giver: SWElife and Stockholm County Council administration
Solution: We are family
Concept: A tool for making a family-contract, providing tips and tricks to cooperate towards a happy and healthy family.
Challenge Area: Health

Abstract

Child Obesity is an increasing problem in the county of Stockholm, even though it is still on a lower level compared to other regions in Sweden and other countries in the world. Within the Open Lab Master’s course a group was given the challenge to prevent child obesity for children aged between -1 – 6 years by SWElife and Stockholm County Council administration. The challenge has its place in the overall goal of “Zero obesity at school start 2030”. 

Obesity is a complex problem with a wide variation of root causes ranging from micro- to macro factor, well suited for the design thinking method, which is a non-linear, iterative process seeking to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions through prototyping and testing. 

Using design thinking, the group identified that the users (parents) needs help to come to a common understanding of their life with children, cooperate and structure their everyday life at an early stage in their parenthood to be able to build a healthy lifestyle in their new situation. Several solutions with potential to achieve the goal were prototyped and tested and the concept that were graded as the one with most potential was a tool for making a family-contract, called “We are Family”. It is a tool which provides you with tips and tricks to cooperate towards a happy and healthy family.

Project presentation video

A project by: Amare Kalu, Reetta Kinnunen, Carolin Maier, Eva Shayo, Karin Svanberg